THE ANEMONES 3

 Now there were many others who went quite off their heads when they saw that the anemones² were out. There was a schoolboy who wanted to have his summer holidays then and there and then there was the beech³, who was most offended.

 

“Aren’t you coming to me soon, Dame⁴ Spring?” he said. “I am a much more important person than those silly anemones and really I can no longer control my buds.”

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” replied Dame Spring. “But you must give me a little time.”

 

She went on through the wood. And, at every step, more anemones appeared. They stood in thick bevies⁵ round the roots of the beech and bashfully bowed their round heads to the ground.

 

“Look up freely,” said Dame Spring, “and rejoice in heaven’s bright sun. Your lives are but short, so you must enjoy them while they last.”

 

The anemones did as she told them. They stretched themselves and spread their white petals⁶ to every side and drank as much sunshine as they could. They knocked their heads against one another and wound their stalks together and laughed and were constantly happy.

 

“Now I can wait no longer,” said the beech and came into leaf.

 

Leaf after leaf crept out of its green covering and spread out and fluttered in the wind. The whole green crown arched itself like a mighty⁷ roof above the ground.

 

“Good heavens, is it evening so soon?” asked the anemones, who thought that it had turned quite dark.

 

The summer was past and the farmer had carted his corn home from the field.

 

The wood was still green, but darker; and, in many places, yellow and red leaves appeared among the green ones. The sun was tired of his warm work during the summer and went early to bed.

 

At night, the winter stole through the trees to see if his time would soon come. When he found a flower, he kissed her politely and said:

 

“Well, well, are you there still? I am glad to see you. Stay where you are. I am a harmless old man and wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

 

But the flower shuddered⁸ with his kiss and the bright dew-drops that hung from her petals froze to ice at the same moment.

 

The winter went oftener and oftener through the wood. He breathed upon the leaves, so that they turned yellow, or upon the ground, so that it grew hard.

 

Even the anemones, who lay down below in the earth and waited for Dame Spring to come again as she had promised, could feel his breath and shuddered right down to their roots.

 

“Oh dear, how cold it is!” they said to one another. “How ever shall we last through the winter? We are sure to die before it is over.”

 

“Now my time has come,” said the winter. “Now I need no longer steal round like a thief in the night. From to-morrow I shall look everybody straight in the face and bite his nose and make his eyes run with tears.”

 

At night the storm broke loose.

 

“Let me see you make a clean sweep of things,” said the winter.

 

And the storm obeyed his orders. He tore howling through the wood and shook the branches so that they creaked and broke. Any that were at all decayed fell down and those that held on had to twist and turn to every side.

 

“Away with all that finery!” howled the storm and tore off the leaves. “This is no time to deck one’s self out. Soon there will be snow on the branches: that’s another story.”

 

All the leaves fell terrified to the ground, but the storm did not let them be in peace. He took them by the waist and waltzed with them over the field, high up in the air and into the wood again, swept them together into great heaps and scattered⁹ them once more to every side, just as the fit seized him.

 

Not until the morning did the storm grow weary and go down.

 

“Now you can have peace for this time,” he said. “I am going down till we have our spring-cleaning. Then we can have another dance, if there are any of you left by that time.”

 

And then the leaves went to rest and lay like a thick carpet over the whole earth.

 

The anemones felt that it had grown delightfully¹⁰ warm.

 

“I wonder if Dame Spring can have come yet?” they asked one another.

 

“I haven’t got my buds ready!” cried one of them.

 

“No more have I! No more have I!” exclaimed the others in chorus.

 

But one of them took courage and just peeped out above the ground.

 

“Good-morning!” cried the withered¹¹ beech-leaves. “It’s rather too early, little missie: if only you don’t come to any harm!”

 

“Isn’t that Dame Spring?” asked the anemone¹.

 

“Not just yet,” replied the beech-leaves. “It’s we, the green leaves you were so angry with in the summer. Now we have lost our green color and have not much left to make a show of. We have enjoyed our youth and danced, I may tell you. And now we are lying here and protecting all the little flowers in the ground against the winter.”

 

“And meanwhile I am standing¹² and freezing with my bare branches,” said the beech, crossly.

 

The anemones talked about it down in the earth and thought it very nice.

“Those dear beech-leaves!” they said.

 

“Mind you remember it next summer, when I come into leaf,” said the beech.

 

“We will, we will!” whispered the anemones.

 

For that sort of thing is promised; but the promise is never kept.

 

1 anemone   

n.海葵

参考例句：

• Do you want this anemone to sting you?你想让这个海葵刺疼你吗？
• The bodies of the hydra and sea anemone can produce buds.水螅和海葵的身体能产生芽。

2 anemones   

n.银莲花( anemone的名词复数 )；海葵

参考例句：

• With its powerful tentacles, it tries to prise the anemones off. 它想用强壮的触角截获海葵。 来自互联网
• Density, scale, thickness are still influencing the anemones shape. 密度、大小、厚度是受最原始的那股海葵的影响。 来自互联网

3 beech   

n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的

参考例句：

• Autumn is the time to see the beech woods in all their glory.秋天是观赏山毛榉林的最佳时期。
• Exasperated,he leaped the stream,and strode towards beech clump.他满腔恼怒，跳过小河，大踏步向毛榉林子走去。

4 dame   

n.女士

参考例句：

• The dame tell of her experience as a wife and mother.这位年长妇女讲了她作妻子和母亲的经验。
• If you stick around,you'll have to marry that dame.如果再逗留多一会，你就要跟那个夫人结婚。

5 bevies   

n.（尤指少女或妇女的）一群( bevy的名词复数 )；（鸟类的）一群

参考例句：

6 petals   

n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• white petals tinged with blue 略带蓝色的白花瓣
• The petals of many flowers expand in the sunshine. 许多花瓣在阳光下开放。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

8 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

10 delightfully   

大喜，欣然

参考例句：

• The room is delightfully appointed. 这房子的设备令人舒适愉快。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The evening is delightfully cool. 晚间凉爽宜人。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 withered   

adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The grass had withered in the warm sun. 这些草在温暖的阳光下枯死了。
• The leaves of this tree have become dry and withered. 这棵树下的叶子干枯了。

12 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。